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Purpose By developing a conceptual model, the purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the role of social assistive technologies in facilitating the process of service innovation in care providing organisations to adopt the principles of the consumer-directed care strategy and reduce perceived consumer vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach Using a cross-sectional survey method, the authors collected data through a survey questionnaire distributed among 335 aged caregivers and specialists. The conceptual model and its 11 research hypotheses were examined using confirmatory factor analysis in structural equation modelling. The rival and mediation models were also estimated. Findings The conceptual model was validated and eight of eleven hypotheses were supported. It was found that dynamic capabilities are crucial to developing service innovation concept in care providing organisations. In this way, social assistive technologies play a facilitating role to promote the consumer-directed care strategy throughout care providing organisations and allow care providers to enhance wellbeing of vulnerable older people based on their socio-economic status. From the lens of aged care providers, it was also found that the consumer-directed care strategy implemented in aged care facilities may help reduce consumer vulnerability among older people especially when they use social assistive technologies in their service settings. Practical implications This study suggests aged care service providers should boost dynamic service innovation capabilities to improve the need for social assistive technologies in aged care facilities with respect to the importance of the consumer-directed care strategy. Originality/value This study contributes to the development and validation of a conceptual model for the use of social assistive technologies to sustain service innovation in aged care business models and enhance the consumer-directed care strategy’s performance to better understand consumer vulnerability among older people.

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Organizational culture and strategy are linked because organizational strategy can be devised by studying the organizational culture in place. In other words, organizational strategy is influenced by the culture set in the organization. Organizational culture and strategy are often part of the major contributing factors to how far a business will proceed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between organizational culture and the competitive strategies in Iran-Khodro Automotive Company. The research was conducted in Iran-Khodro Automotive Company. The employees were considered as the population of the study and a questionnaire was designed for the purpose of data collection. Results show that there is a significant relationship between strategy and organizational culture. Considering a minor difference between differentiation and lower cost strategies, the company's strategies could be mentioned as a combination of the two. Furthermore, in terms of its competitive strategies, the company seems to pursue differentiation strategy rather than focus strategy. In addition, analysis of the company's organizational culture characteristics demonstrates that some of these characteristics are not in coordination with company's strategies in specific cases in the Company.

Due to recent sanctions against Iran, the Iranian active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) industry has become increasingly scrutinised. However, innovation and new product development (NPD) are challenges for Iranian APIs; especially as in the domestic market they face substantial competition from Asian and American competitors. This paper investigates the existing NPD situation in the APIs industry in Iran. To do so, the researchers have explored the extent to which the APIs industry follows an innovation strategy or imitation strategy by discovering factories influencing the NPD process. This paper also includes a case-study on the APIs industry in Taamin Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Company (TAPIC) holding. A wide variety of data collection methods were used, ranging from semi-structured questionnaire and interviews, literature reviews, archival record analysis and participant observation. The findings show that "possessing skilled and professional teams" is the most important activity for designing a successful NPD process in APIs. In contrast, "high cost of importing new technologies" tends to be the main restriction that endangers a successful NPD process in APIs in Iran.